Red Cow or Kitty Shorthorn quite dry, without her wrists
aching, and then she allowed Dan to look. But milking did not
amuse him, and it was pleasanter for Una to be alone in the quiet
pastures with quiet-spoken Mrs Vincey. So, evening after evening,
she slipped across to Little Lindens, took her stool from the
fern-clump beside the fallen oak, and went to work, her pail
between her knees, and her head pressed hard into the cow's
flank. As often as not, Mrs Vincey would be milking cross Pansy
at the other end of the pasture, and would not come near till it was
time to strain and pour off.

Once, in the middle of a milking, Kitty Shorthorn boxed Una's
ear with her tail.

'You old pig!' said Una, nearly crying, for a cow's tail can hurt.

'Why didn't you tie it down, child?' said a voice behind her.

'I meant to, but the flies are so bad I let her off - and this is what
she's done!' Una looked round, expecting Puck, and saw a curly-
haired girl, not much taller than herself, but older, dressed in a
curious high-waisted, lavender-coloured riding-habit, with a
high hunched collar and a deep cape and a belt fastened with a steel
clasp. She wore a yellow velvet cap and tan gauntlets, and carried
a real hunting-crop. Her cheeks were pale except for two pretty
pink patches in the middle, and she talked with little gasps at the
end of her sentences, as though she had been running.

'You don't milk so badly, child,' she said, and when she smiled
her teeth showed small and even and pearly.